[TN-Bird] The Assault on the Endangered Species Act
- From: <cpnichol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ConsPolComm@xxxxxxxxxxx>, <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:18:14 -0400
Below are two news items about the current efforts in Congress to rewrite the
Endangered Species Act. This effort has been under way for several years, but
because of the present makeup of Congress and the Executive Branch, now has a
very real chance of being enacted.
The first is an article from the New York Times published July 4. The second
is a list-serve message from the Endangered Species Coalition.
Note that if the some of the measures advocated by Pombo and other "reformers"
had been in place in the 1970s, there would have been little federal effort to
restore the Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon in Tennessee, or the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker anywhere in the US.
This is an important issue and TN-Bird readers and the TOS, both through
efforts of individual members and the TOS Conservation Policy Committee, need
to let our legislators know how we feel about this. Jimmy Duncan (R-Knoxville)
is the only Tennessee congressman on the House Resources Committee. I do not
know his positions on rewriting the ESA.
Chuck Nicholson
Norris, TN
**********************************
New York Times, July 4, 2005
July 4, 2005
Bill Would Reduce Government's Role in Protecting
Species
By FELICITY BARRINGER
WASHINGTON, July 3 - Republican critics of the
Endangered Species Act in Congress have drafted
legislation hedging the government's obligation to
take all necessary steps to bring back to robust
health any species on the brink of extinction.
The draft envisions more limited government
obligations: ensuring that the status of an endangered
plant or animal gets no worse and helping to make it
better.
Representatives of environmental groups who have seen
the draft legislation said that the change, achieved
by redefining the act's interpretation of
"conservation," would severely undercut the law.
The draft measure, said Jamie Rappaport Clark, the
executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife,
"takes a wrecking ball to the whole Endangered Species
Act" by changing its mission, disabling enforcement
tools and loosening controls on agencies like the
Forest Service and the Army Corps of Engineers.
But Jim Sims, the executive vice president of
Partnership for the West, a group representing Western
ranchers, farmers and industries, said that the draft
has a "common-sense" emphasis on incremental
improvements that are achievable, rather than on
long-term recovery that may take decades. "The
aspirational change is necessary," he said. "It's more
important to incrementally improve the species' health
as much as we can rather than set the bar at total and
complete recovery, and nothing else."
The draft legislation, prepared by the Republican
staff of the House Resources Committee, also narrows
the law's reach, potentially exempting many federal
actions that are now subject to review. In addition,
it requires that the authority to list subgroups of a
species of fish or wildlife as endangered be used
"only sparingly." The draft would automatically take
the Endangered Species Act off the books in 2015.
Richard W. Pombo, Republican of California and
chairman of the House Resources Committee, has long
been a critic of the Endangered Species Act, although
in recent months he has spoken more favorably of its
goals, and indicated that his revisions would make
them more achievable.
The draft legislation was given to The New York Times
by a lawmaker opposed to its provisions, who requested
anonymity because the legislation had not yet been
introduced. It has been circulating among interest
groups focused on the issue, which tends to pit
environmental groups against a loose coalition of
Western ranchers, farmers and business interests. Most
lobbyists believe that the committee's legislation
will provide the framework for rewriting and
reauthorizing the act.
The law has been a magnet for controversy since its
passage in 1973. It is credited with playing a major
role in preventing the extinction of hundreds of
species of plants, insects, animals and birds in the
United States. Nonetheless, only a handful of the more
than 1,200 species listed over the years have
recovered sufficiently to permit their removal from
the list.
The law, as interpreted by a series of federal judges
in the past quarter-century, has been instrumental in
blocking dam construction, ending most logging in the
old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest,
overturning state or regional decisions on the
allocation of scarce western water, and preventing
some development on public and private land.
Over the past decade, efforts to rewrite the law
failed to pass the House or were blocked by Senate
Republicans, but Mr. Pombo said in a recent interview
that he believed he could forge a consensus and win
passage of the bill, given Republican gains in the
House and the Senate in the last election.
Some of his supporters are not as sure. But Mr. Sims,
of Partnership for the West, is not among them. "The
prospects for some updating of the Endangered Species
Act are very high in this Congress," he said.
"I think the chairman has a very reasonable marker out
there with this draft," Mr. Sims added. "It's not too
far to the left, not too far to the right. A number of
my members don't think this goes far enough."
Environmental groups are gearing up their own campaign
in opposition to the legislation as currently drafted.
They may find unusual allies in property-rights
advocates who have focused their criticism on the
bill's requirement that the government designate, and
potentially restrict the use of, territory that is
essential to a species' recovery. In a June 16 letter
to Mr. Pombo, representatives of groups including the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax
Reform and Gun Owners of America urged that the bill
ensure that all property owners be compensated if
their land values drop.
The draft legislation permits compensation only when a
property owner shows that a government action
diminishes a property's value by at least 50 percent.
On the issue of what constitutes the "best available
science" for making and supporting decisions under the
law, the draft measure takes the unusual step of
giving one scientific method preference over another.
It calls for "empirical data" - which can be hard to
obtain when a species's numbers are small and
scattered - to be used when possible. More common
currently are studies based on statistical models of a
species's number, range and viability.
The draft legislation also sets new restrictions for
mapping the territory considered essential for the
recovery of an endangered species. It would limit such
territory, called "critical habitat," to areas
currently occupied by the species; the law now allows
for the inclusion of a larger portion of the species's
historic range. In the new proposal, expansion of the
current range is possible only if that range is
inadequate to prevent the species's extinction.
"It shortchanges habitat protection," said Ms. Clark
of Defenders of Wildlife. "And habitat destruction is
the primary reason for most species becoming
endangered." She added that the law "places almost
overwhelming restrictions on sound science."
Mr. Sims, in turn, argued that some of the law's
proponents care more about keeping land unused than
ending threats of extinction. "This is the Endangered
Species Act," he said. "I would argue that a great
majority of the American people believe that a focus
on efforts to recover a species are more important
than efforts to lock up land."
*********************************************************
> -----Original Message-----
> From: esc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:esc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 3:01 PM
> To: Nicholson, Charles P.
> Subject: Alert: Oppose Rep. Pombo's Developers' Wildlife Extinction Bill
>
>
>
> House Resources Committee Chair Richard Pombo has tipped his hand.
> Details of his planned Endangered Species Act legislation have been
> circulated on Capitol Hill and written about in the New York Times and
> other major papers. (See www.stopextinction.org for this coverage.)
>
> The Endangered Species Act is a safety net that protects wildlife, fish
> and plants on the brink of extinction. Rep. Pombo's bill would cut
> large holes in this safety net. We need your help to stop this bill.
> Details of the bill and what you can do are below.
>
> In the coming months, Congress will likely vote on Pombo's plan to gut
> the Endangered Species Act. It is critical that Members of Congress
> stand up for our natural heritage and oppose his scheme to repeal the
> protections that the Endangered Species Act provides. Please call your
> Member of Congress and urge them to oppose this and any bill that would
> weaken the Endangered Species Act.
>
> Thank you for your work to protect endangered species and habitat.
>
> Sincerely,
> The staff of the Endangered Species Coalition
> www.stopextinction.org
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> ACTION: Please call or write your Member of Congress and ask them to
> oppose Representative Pombo's bill that would weaken the protections of
> the Endangered Species Act.
>
> Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
> Ask for your Member of Congress's office.
>
> You can look up your Representative at: www.house.gov
> You can look up your Senators at: www.senate.gov
>
> This week, congress is out of session and representatives are back in
> their home district so this is the perfect time to call and voice your
> support for the Endangered Species Act. In addition, Members of
> Congress often hold public hearings during Congressional recesses. You
> can attend these meetings, and ask them about their positions on the
> Endangered Species Act, and urge them to oppose any bill that would
> weaken protections for species and habitat.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> BACKGROUND:
>
> Representative Pombo's Developers' Wildlife Extinction bill would gut
> the Endangered Species Act on behalf of developers, oil companies,
> timber companies, mining companies and extreme property rights groups.
> We have not yet seen the full legislative language, but have seen a
> summary of the major points. According to reports, the bill would:
> * expire the Endangered Species Act in the year 2015
> * change the definition of conservation, to abandon the nation's
> commitment to recovering species on the brink of extinction
> * redefine the definition of endangered species so that the species
> must be endangered throughout its entire range. (If this provision was
> law when the ESA was first enacted, it would have been impossible to
> list the bald eagle, the grizzly bear, the gray wolf and many other
> species who are endangered in the lower 48, but not endangered in Alaska
> or Canada.)
> * weaken protections for species listed as "threatened" under the law
> * weaken habitat protection, by requiring only occupied, and not
> unoccupied, habitat be protected
> * exempt federal agencies from the requirement to consult with the U.S.
> Fish and Wildlife Service on actions that might impact endangered
> species
> * require the federal government to pay landowners for the cost of
> complying with the law, under an onerous "takings" provision
>
> The Endangered Species Act is a safety net that protects wildlife, fish
> and plants on the brink of extinction. It has been enormously
> successful in preventing the extinction of hundreds of species,
> including bald eagles, gray wolves and Pacific salmon. We must not
> diminish protections for these magnificent animals, or for the places
> they call home.
>
> For more information, visit www.stopextinction.org
> > __________________________________________
>
> This mail is never sent unsolicited. You, or someone on your behalf, has
> subscribed to receive this information at Endangered Species Coalition.
>
> To unsubscribe from Endangered Species Coalition click here:
>
> http://www.stopextinction.org/team/unsubscribe.cfm?email=cpnicholson@tva
> .gov
>
> Or click here http://www.stopextinction.org/team/settings.cfm to review
> your subscriptions.
>
> Please do not respond to this email. To contact Endangered Species
> Coalition please click here:
>
> http://www.stopextinction.org/feedback/feedback.cfm .
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